Enhancing College Student Leadership Practices Through Organization Development Interventions: A Case Study of Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages (Zyufl), China

This research mainly investigated the impact of ODI on the leadership practice of college students, to determine the significant difference in university student leadership before and after ODI. The researcher firstly surveyed on 339 students in ZYUFL Jinghu Campus to study the current university students' leadership practice, it was found that the level of leadership of college students was not high. Meanwhile, significant differences of the students' leadership practices according to their experiences of knowledge learning, practical training, and team building were determined. Based on these findings, the researcher had designed relevant leadership activities, and conducted a four-month intervention for improving the selected college students’ leadership practices. Then, the researcher further tested and compared the students’ leadership practices in the control group and the experimental group, before and after the intervention. In this process, a paired samples t-test was applied and significant differences with the students in the experimental group before and after the intervention were determined, which proved that the intervention was effective, and the college students’ leadership practice could be effective through intervention. Discussion on the findings and recommendations were also provided in this study

Biodiversity Soup II: A bulk-sample metabarcoding pipeline emphasizing error reduction

Despite widespread recognition of its great promise to aid decision-making in environmental management, the applied use of metabarcoding requires improvements to reduce the multiple errors that arise during PCR amplification, sequencing and library generation. We present a co-designed wet-lab and bioinformatic workflow for metabarcoding bulk samples that removes both false-positive (tag jumps, chimeras, erroneous sequences) and false-negative ('dropout') errors. However, we find that it is not possible to recover relative-abundance information from amplicon data, due to persistent species-specific biases. To present and validate our workflow, we created eight mock arthropod soups, all containing the same 248 arthropod morphospecies but differing in absolute and relative DNA concentrations, and we ran them under five different PCR conditions. Our pipeline includes qPCR-optimized PCR annealing temperature and cycle number, twin-tagging, multiple independent PCR replicates per sample, and negative and positive controls. In the bioinformatic portion, we introduce Begum, which is a new version of DAMe (Zepeda-Mendoza et al., 2016. BMC Res. Notes 9:255) that ignores heterogeneity spacers, allows primer mismatches when demultiplexing samples and is more efficient. Like DAMe, Begum removes tag-jumped reads and removes sequence errors by keeping only sequences that appear in more than one PCR above a minimum copy number per PCR. The filtering thresholds are user-configurable. We report that OTU dropout frequency and taxonomic amplification bias are both reduced by using a PCR annealing temperature and cycle number on the low ends of the ranges currently used for the Leray-FolDegenRev primers. We also report that tag jumps and erroneous sequences can be nearly eliminated with Begum filtering, at the cost of only a small rise in dropouts. We replicate published findings that uneven size distribution of input biomasses leads to greater dropout frequency and that OTU size is a poor predictor of species input biomass. Finally, we find no evidence for 'tag-biased' PCR amplification. To aid learning, reproducibility, and the design and testing of alternative metabarcoding pipelines, we provide our Illumina and input-species sequence datasets, scripts, a spreadsheet for designing primer tags and a tutorial

Targeting the metabolic profile of amino acids to identify the key metabolic characteristics in cerebral palsy

BackgroundCerebral palsy (CP) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by motor impairment. In this study, we aimed to describe the characteristics of amino acids (AA) in the plasma of children with CP and identify AA that could play a potential role in the auxiliary diagnosis and treatment of CP.MethodsUsing high performance liquid chromatography, we performed metabolomics analysis of AA in plasma from 62 CP children and 60 healthy controls. Univariate and multivariate analyses were then applied to characterize different AA. AA markers associated with CP were then identified by machine learning based on the Lasso regression model for the validation of intra-sample interactions. Next, we calculated a discriminant formula and generated a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve based on the marker combination in the discriminant diagnostic model.ResultsA total of 33 AA were detected in the plasma of CP children and controls. Compared with controls, 5, 7, and 10 different AA were identified in total participants, premature infants, and full-term infants, respectively. Of these, β-amino-isobutyric acid [p = 2.9*10(−4), Fold change (FC) = 0.76, Variable importance of protection (VIP) = 1.75], tryptophan [p = 5.4*10(−4), FC = 0.87, VIP = 2.22], and asparagine [p = 3.6*10(−3), FC = 0.82, VIP = 1.64], were significantly lower in the three groups of CP patients than that in controls. The combination of β-amino-isobutyric acid, tryptophan, and taurine, provided high levels of diagnostic classification and risk prediction efficacy for preterm children with an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.8741 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.7322–1.000]. The discriminant diagnostic formula for preterm infant with CP based on the potential marker combination was defined by p = 1/(1 + e−(8.295–0.3848* BAIBA-0.1120*Trp + 0.0108*Tau)).ConclusionFull-spectrum analysis of amino acid metabolomics revealed a distinct profile in CP, including reductions in the levels of β-amino-isobutyric acid, tryptophan, and taurine. Our findings shed new light on the pathogenesis and diagnosis of premature infants with CP

Phase-dependent electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia on Janus Cu@Ni tandem catalyst

Electrosynthesis of NH3 from nitrate anion (NO3–) reduction (NO3–RR) is a cascade reaction, which is considered a great potential alternative to the Haber–Bosch route to reduce CO2 emissions and alleviate the adverse effects of excessive NO3– contamination in the environment. Frequently, solid solution alloys (SSAs) with a single-phase active site may struggle to fully utilize their benefits during the entire process of nitrate (NO3–) reduction, which involves multiple intermediate reactions. In this study, we showed that by separating Cu and Ni in a Janus Cu@Ni catalyst structure, we can achieve high performance in NO3–RR, yielding a high Faradaic efficiency (92.5%) and a production rate of NH3 (1127 mmol h–1 g–1) at −0.2 V versus RHE, compared to CuNi SSA (82.6%, 264 mmol h–1 g–1). Here, we demonstrate that a Janus Cu@Ni catalyst with short-range ordered catalytic sites favors the adsorption of NO through a bridge-bond mode. Simultaneously, a hydrogen spillover process was observed, in which Ni dissociates H2O to generate *H which spontaneously migrates to adjacent catalytic sites to hydrogenate the *NOx intermediates. This facilitates N–O bond cleavage, resulting in the NH3 production rate nearly 5 times higher than that of CuNi SSA, where NO was linearly bonded on its surface. The study of this catalytic effect, a cooperative tandem enhancement, provides insights into the design of multifunctional heterogeneous catalysts for electrochemical NH3 synthesis

Exploring the mechanism of aloe-emodin in the treatment of liver cancer through network pharmacology and cell experiments

Objective: Aloe-emodin (AE) is an anthraquinone compound extracted from the rhizome of the natural plant rhubarb. Initially, it was shown that AE exerts an anti-inflammatory effect. Further studies revealed its antitumor activity against various types of cancer. However, the mechanisms underlying these properties remain unclear. Based on network pharmacology and molecular docking, this study investigated the molecular mechanism of AE in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and evaluated its therapeutic effect through in vitro experiments.Methods: CTD, Pharmmapper, SuperPred and TargetNet were the databases to obtain potential drug-related targets. DisGenet, GeneCards, OMIM and TTD were used to identify potential disease-related targets. Intersection genes for drugs and diseases were obtained through the Venn diagram. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses of intersecting genes were conducted by the website of Bioinformatics. Intersection genes were introduced into STRING to construct a protein-protein interaction network, while the Cytoscape3.9.1 software was used to visualize and analyze the core targets. AutoDock4.2.6 was utilized to achieve molecular docking between drug and core targets. In vitro experiments investigated the therapeutic effects and related mechanisms of AE.Results: 63 overlapped genes were obtained and GO analysis generated 3,646 entries by these 63 intersecting genes. KEGG analysis mainly involved apoptosis, proteoglycans in cancer, TNF signaling pathway, TP53 signaling pathway, PI3K-AKT signaling pathway, etc. AKT1, EGFR, ESR1, TP53, and SRC have been identified as core targets because the binding energies of them between aloe-emodin were less than -5 kcal/Mol.The mRNA and protein expression, prognosis, mutation status, and immune infiltration related to core targets were further revealed. The involvement of AKT1 and EGFR, as well as the key target of the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway, indicated the importance of this signaling pathway in the treatment of HCC using AE. The results of the Cell Counting Kit-8 assay and flow analysis demonstrated the therapeutic effect of AE. The downregulation of EGFR, PI3KR1, AKT1, and BCL2 in mRNA expression and PI3KR1, AKT,p-AKT in protein expression confirmed our hypothesis.Conclusion: Based on network pharmacology and molecular docking, our study initially showed that AE exerted a therapeutic effect on HCC by modulating multiple signaling pathways. Various analyses confirmed the antiproliferative activity and pro-apoptotic effect of AE on HCC through the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway. This study revealed the therapeutic mechanism of AE in the treatment of HCC through a novel approach, providing a theoretical basis for the clinical application of AE

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Spudcan bearing capacity calculation of the offshore jack-up drilling platform during the preloading process

To predict the penetration depth of the offshore jack-up drilling platform during the preloading process, the fluid-solid coupling theory was introduced to establish the finite element model of the soil-spudcan system in saturated clay. With this model, the spudcan bearing capacity factor was numerically calculated when spudcans penetrated into homogeneous and heterogeneous clay. The results show that, the spudcan bearing capacity factor is mainly decided by soil strength and spudcan penetration depth: for soil with lower strength heterogeneous coefficient, the spudcan bearing factor has a positive correlation with the spudcan penetration depth, while for soil with higher strength heterogeneous coefficients, the correlation is negative. When the spudcan penetration depth is about 20 m, the maximum bearing capacity factor of spudcan is 10.30 (not consider soil backflow) and 12.25 (consider soil backflow), respectively. The calculation method for spudcan bearing capacity during the preloading process was given. With this method, the penetration depth of spudcan under certain soil condition for the Bohai No. 5 platform was calculated. Because the proposed calculation method considers the influences of reaction between soil and spudcan, the nonlinear property of soil, end resistance at the bottom of spudcan, and lateral resistance of spudcan during the whole preloading process, the predicted spudcan penetration depth is more reasonable and has a difference of about 20% from the result of traditional calculation methods. Key words: offshore jack-up drilling platform, spudcan, bearing capacity, soil backflow, cavity heigh

A New Look at Storm Separation Technique in Estimation of Probable Maximum Precipitation in Mountainous Areas

Storm separation is a key step when carrying out storm transposition analysis for Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) estimation in mountainous areas. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has recommended the step-duration-orographic-intensification-factor (SDOIF) method since 2009 as an effective storm separation technique to identify the amounts of precipitation caused by topography from those caused by atmospheric dynamics. The orographic intensification factors (OIFs) are usually developed based on annual maximum rainfall series under such assumption that the mechanism of annual maximum rainfalls is close to that of the PMP-level rainfall. In this paper, an alternative storm separation technique using rainfall quantiles, instead of annual maximum rainfalls, with rare return periods estimated via Regional L-moments Analysis (RLMA) to calculate the OIFs is proposed. Based on Taiwan’s historical 4- and 24-h precipitation data, comparisons of the OIFs obtained from annual maximum rainfalls with that from extreme rainfall quantiles at different return periods, as well as the PMP estimates of Hong Kong from transposing the different corresponding separated nonorographic rainfalls, were conducted. The results show that the OIFs obtained from rainfall quantiles with certain rare probabilities are more stable and reasonable in terms of stability and spatial distribution pattern

Numerically Coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Analyses of Ultra-Heavy Oil Reservoirs during the Micro-Fracturing Stage

Water injection in SAGD well pairs has rapidly developed to improve the circulation preheating efficiency and the steam chamber propagation speed. However, a key problem is to evaluate the coupled thermo-geomechanical effects of water injection under complex operations. In this paper, a coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical model considering skeleton shear dilation and phase change of bitumen was established. Major conclusions were drawn that there were large temperature changes only in two separate areas around wells. The pore pressures in the reservoir around wells and the base rock right below the production well increased significantly. The void ratio was improved in the reservoir around wells, especially in the inter-well region. The reservoir was lifted, and the largest uplift was right above the wells. This information can guide engineers in properly evaluating the field operations